The Battlefield Line, Shackerstone to Shenton, UK - (Work in Progress - Large Images)

[fen_tiger]

Hi Rob.

Visitors to the Cambridgeshire and Norfolk Fenlands near to The Wash would instantly noticed of how flat and wide open these low-lying lands are. You have to remember that Fenland, before the drainage schemes were started by the Dutch engineer Vermuyden in the 17th Century, in winter was a waterly landscape with a scattering of 'high' areas of land no more than 5ft higher than the surrounding landscape - officially called 'islands'. Even though Fenland is now 'dry' these high areas of land are still referred to by the Fen people as 'islands'.

The small fenland city of Ely is on one such piece of 'high ground' which is still referred to as an island as the surrounding landscape was under 1 ft of water. People visiting the Fens today will also notice that the River Nene from Guyhirn to Wisbech is higher than the surrounding farmland. The main A47 trunk road from Guyhirn to Wisbech runs along the top of the east bank of the Nene. Constant drainage of the land has resulted in it shrinking and thus the ground level is still slowly dropping as the land further dries out. The two river banks themselves of the tidal Nene are up 7 or 8ft higer than the river. Many of the roads between Thorney and Wisbech are built on the tops of the drainage channel and river banks as if this whole area was to ever revert back to being under water, road links could be maintained.

To stop Fenland reverting back to a watery landscape with the returning threat of sea floods (The Wash), everywhere you look are numerous pumping stations and man-made drainage channels or ditches.

The main, important pumping station protecting fenland is at Wiggenhall St. Germains, Norfolk on the tidal River Great Ouse. At low tide, waters from both the land and the non-tidal Great Ouse is pumped out into the King's Lynn side of the pumping station - the tidal River Great Ouse. Dog-in-a-Doublet, Whittlesey (nr Peterborough) is a major tidal sluice gate on the River Nene. At low tide, these sluice gates are opened allowing drained water from the fens and from the non-tidal Nene to flow out into the Wisbech side of these sluice gates - into the tidal Nene.

Fenland, because of its wide-open, low-lying landscape is internationally known as 'Land of the big sky' and visitors to this unique landscape can appreciate as to why it is so called. The nearest significant hilly landscape to us is the other side of Downham Market, Norfolk on the edge of the fens.

Further reading can be found here - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Fens

Many regards.

Andy

 

[fen_tiger]

I have no need for DEM as if i did, then my Wisbech branch line railway I am accurately recreating from the original route (which is on a flat, featureless, low-lying landscape) would end up with embankments, tunnels, hills and mountains. Fenland is low-lying and below sea-level and thus I am accurately depicting this. My route recreation has been intensively pre-planned, measured out to real life distances and mapped out long before I even laid the first ever section of track around my proposed March Station. As I mentioned on my own thread, every thing I am doing on my Trainz2012 route is identical and exact right down to the minute detail of the prototype - all track and sidings, all stations and all fenland landscape. My own 17+ mile route matches the real route milage exactly right down to the last centimetre.

Besides, building hills and mountains would take up a huge amount of my spare time of which I have precious little of each day. I'd rather get trains running on my route sooner than later.

Come and visit Fenland, where no hills or mountains or railway embankments can spoil our view of the best sunsets in the world.

Rant over. I'm now back to building more loops and goods yards at Wisbech and March, following the original GER signal box track diagrams.

Andy.

 

[rumour3]

Hi Andy

It's obviously your choice whether or not to use DEM but the whole point about DEM is that it accurately picks up the very subtle 1 or 2 metre changes in level that do exist, even in the fens. It doesn't automatically mean that your route will look like the Settle and Carlisle. I grew up just west of Cambridge and have travelled around the fens quite a lot over the years so I have a fair bit of familiarity with the area. For a flat part of the country, the fens have some of the bumpiest roads!

I agree with you about the best sunsets, though, and look forward to seeing progress on your route.

George- sorry for going a bit off topic in your thread- the Battlefield line is looking really good.

Best wishes

R3

 

[fen_tiger]

Hi Rumour3

Yes, I agree with a lot of the fen roads and lanes being quite bumpy - one of the drawbacks of living in an area below sea level, the constant drainage of the land can even cause the back little-used roads around here to subside quite badly.

I will endeavour to add and update my own progress screenshots as and when I can onto my own thread. Only today have I completed March East Yard and Wisbech Goods Yard following the track diagrams of them on Google Maps and my railway books. Very impressed with my effort in doing March East Yard, although with a lot of fiddling and constant tweaking done to get the sidings ladder points properly aligned. Whitemoor Yards and March Motive Power Depot is the last stage of track building I have to do before I finally get my railway built up with signals, complete stations and goods yards. Landscaping can wait until I am happy with how all my railway and signalling performs under locomotive test conditions.

Best Wishes

Andy.

 

[Paulsw2]

I hesitate to take George's thread even further 'off message', but the other great thing that can be said for TransDEM (the DEM application that most of us use in Trainz) is that it maps the historic Ordnance Survey map directly on to the terrain so that you have all the historical features right there on the map. Invaluable, particularly for routes that no longer exist and are just a faint line across a ploughed field in Google Earth.

However, each to his own - there's no 'right' way of building routes in Trainz. Good luck with your route Andy and I look forward to seeing further progress.

@Paul Hi Paul, thank you for the offer, how over I am fairly far into the creation of the route now so I will leave out the use of a DEM this time as I'm managing the terrain. However I have plans at some point to create the Burton On Trent to Leicester Line, and a DEM for that would be incredible.

No problem at all George, let me know if you want Burton to Leicester and I'll see what I can do.

Paul

 

[fen_tiger]

Hi Paulsw2

Many thanks for your continued support for me re-building on Trainz2012 the former GER 1847 -1968 branch across the fens. Currently working on copying Network Rail's engineering and ballast recycling yards at Whitemoor, March. I'll be uploading more images of my route as and when possible. I first need to get my Whitemoor Yard into place before I can even start any signalling work and full station / goods yard work. My Wisbech Goods Yard, however, is now in place matching the original former yard's track layout.

Andy